BMW i presents a series of videos with some feedback from the electronauts who are part of the BMW ActiveE lease program.

The BMW ActiveE began leasing in select markets beginning in Fall 2011. It was made available for lease in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, New York, Boston and Connecticut.

The ActiveE has a maximum power output of 170 hp and a maximum torque of 184 lb-ft, the latter is available from a standstill as typical of electric powered vehicles. This makes for an acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in under nine seconds while top speed is electronically limited at around 90 mph.

In California, the company I work for is putting up over 200 charging stations over the next couple of years (you may have seen what company in the news, it was part of a settlement with the state). To fully charge the car, it takes about an hour. Also for home use, you have to have a charging station put somewhere outside your home. I know in Texas they have charging stations where you pay a fee every month for access to use them.

Two people at my company here in NJ currently own this car and are able to charge it here for free since we are a distributor for charging stations (among other things we do involving energy). I actually pass one of the owners every morning on my way to work on the Turnpike here in NJ. The president of my company owns 3 electric cars with the Tesla S, Fisker Karma, and I forget the other one.

The price on these are also kind of out there right now with them being around $100k I believe (think it is actually more).

I'm not posting up the company I work for because it would be advertising for them and would be against forum rules.

That is an amazing car!
Does anyone think that they will make this for the 3 or 5 series, with bigger more powerful power plants?
Assuming that all of the lease sales have gone good. Right?

There is an F01 7 Series prototype that uses 4 hub motors. Battery location is where the engine would be, the tunnel and under the rear floor so it does not impede storage. The current generation 7 will more than likely never be used for public consumption in an "E" car but is testing now for feasibility for the next generation as it will be be lightweight in design borrowing some of the BMWi tech

And that is why BMW is creating BMWi as "born electric" using lightweight materials. Shoehorning an electric drivetrain in a typical chassis doesn't work as well as it could because of the weight. Tesla packaged their first products in a ICE chassis and now have an ground up build in the Model S- huge improvements.

The ActiveE is still a "beta" product hence why it is not for sale- they are testing in a field trial for the i3. The MINI E started the process- lots of advances were made from that test and more will come from the ActiveE.

The i3 will be about 800lbs lighter

The next generation 7 will use carbon fiber and aluminum to drastically reduce the chassis weight and if the study with the prototype warrants the next chassis to accept electrification than it will be incorporated. They can run the numbers and calculate projections with the anticipated weight loss: chassis will be 400lbs lighter will yield X more miles etc.